Five Things to Love About Waitress
Sarah Bareilles
Musicals written by pop stars all too often sound as if they were banged out on the back of the bus between tour dates. But singer/songwriter Bareilles (you’ve heard her top-ten hit ‘Love Song’a zillion times but still brighten up and sing along every time it comes on) is the real deal. These are thoughtful, powerful songs without a whiff of the jukebox to them. Viva Bareilles.
Mark Evans and Allison Luff
You might remember Luff from the underrated musical based on the movie Ghost a few years back, but you probably don’t, what with it being so underrated and all. She carries the play with the confidence of a career caterer blithely balancing a soaring stack of china plates. And Evans, who debuted on Broadway in The Play That Goes wrong, invests Dr. Pomatter with a just-short-of-bumbling sincerity that’s sweet as – no, I’m not going to say it.
Naughty But Nice Cakes
At the end of the day, all those endless pies are beside the point; in its heart of hearts, Waitress is a paean to the pleasures of adultery. Indeed it’s marginally surprising that Bareilles didn’t have some short-order cook or dishwasher belt out The Ballad of Ashley Madison. (All right, fine – just two of three relationships actually involve a little something on the side; the other is a paean to the pleasures of combining sex with a passion for reenacting the Revolutionary War. Which surely deserves a spin-off musical of its own).
Dayna Jarae Dantzler
Dantzler’s turn as the you’re-not-fooling-me-for-one-second-fella nurse is the sauciest role that Waitress serves up. When she declares that Pomatter is nothing but a country club doctor, you want to stand up and shout ‘Oh, snap!’ (Note: But you don’t. For which the cast thanks you.)
When He Sees Me
Sung by Dawn (Caitlin Houlahan) soon after posting her first internet dating profile, When He Sees Me relates her wide-eyed wonder at what will happen on her first date. “He might sit too close,” she shudders, ‘Or call the waiter by his first name, or eat Oreos.’ This has given The Enthusiast no little pause, as I often call waiters by their first name. Have I been an ogre all this time and not known it?